The Price of Freedom
by showyoursmile
Summary: When Ifalna's husband is murdered and she and her infant daughter are kidnapped by the very men responsible, she strives to stay strong for Aerith. Everyone returns to the Planet, but the end of one story heralds the beginning of another.


The door knock was no different than any other. There was no distinguishing factor, no warning siren to grab the baby and crawl out the back window, to run as far away from their tiny Icicle Inn home as they could possibly manage. There was no reason to suspect that the visitors were on a warpath of powerlust.

When Ifalna untangled herself from her husband's arms - her kind, brilliant, wonderful husband - she walked regretfully toward the door, perturbed only by the fact that their precious 'private time' was being disturbed by an unwelcome rap on the door, by people who clearly could not feel the vibes of genuine joy radiating through the walls.

Her assessment was not completely off the mark; in fact, one could say Professor Hojo was incapable of sensing or even feeling any sort of emotion, save for self-satisfaction. Seeing his face was like a kick in the gut, and even as she stumbled back with a sudden frantic worry for her husband and her young daughter, only twenty days old, she wanted to fight back, to make him leave, to rewind her life just a little bit and not open that stupid door (though deep within her, she knew it would not have made much difference). Here surroundings were like a blur, moving too fast and deteriorating too quickly.

_Take her_, she just wanted them to take her. She cried out for the safety of her tiny, innocent child, words falling on deaf ears as cackles and words, more awful words filled their tiny lab. Their tiny home. Struggle, kick, yank-

If Hojo's face had been a kick, watching her husband collapse before her eyes was a stab of agonizing pain. Seeing the bullet lodge once into his white lab coat, once between his eyes was like feeling that bullet tear into her too. Her stomach turned, and all she could think of was Aerith, her baby, her sweet angelic daughter... and Hojo knew about her. Hojo was going to take Aerith, was going to take them both, had just murdered Gast...

Seeing Aerith cradled in Hojo's arms made her want to vomit or smash him between the eyes, but before she could struggle from the infantrymen's firm grips, she felt a little prick, and her mind became fuzzier...fuzzier...

* * *

The Shinra labs were eerie and cold, much like their present caretaker. The equipment at the lab based in Icicle Inn might not have been the most cheerful place on the planet, but there was something warm about that icy little village, something that had softened the cold edge of science and technology filling the small building.

It had become her home. It had housed the ones who meant the world to her. It was where she fell in love with a man who had been brutally taken from her just a few years ago.

Aerith was all she had left - her tiny bundled reason for carrying on. As the little girl grew, Ifalna had to admit the child was looking quite a bit like her, but that smile...she had her father's smile, looking up from under the pale green glow of their lab tank. A smile so rare in these circumstances where Hojo would take Aerith for any number of hours, leaving Ifalna alone and wondering what awful things they were doing, wishing they would take only her instead, that they would just focus on the adult and let the child be free to live. Yet even when Iflana was taken for her samplings and experimental tests, her own turn with Hojo's painfully twisted imagination, all she could think about was Aerith alone in the other room, no one to stroke her hair and tell her everything would be okay, to tell her to be strong and that everything would be okay.

In truth, Ifalna wished for the same, to have some sort of reassurance that what they were enduring had an end, that it would come to an ultimate resolution rather than continue forever in some eternal state of suffering. They would both return to the Planet someday, but she hoped it would be outside of these cold, lifeless walls.

There was no one to soothingly stroke Ifalna's hair in the Shinra labs. Her destiny, as well as the destiny of her child, had fallen into her hands alone.

* * *

For seven years, these cruel walls had closed her in. Now, she would break them out, grasp freedom with each last trace of life in her body.

Hojo was complacent. Arrogant. So convinced she'd given up all hope, but he had never known love and the things love could do to a person. She had grown so weak from the experiments that he no longer had guards watching the doors, no long seemed to view her will as a threat when she was taken from the place she and Aerith had been contained for all this time.

Arrogance would be his Achilles heel.

As always, Ifalna was dragged roughly from their tank, and Aerith didn't cry. The child watched solemnly with an understanding that was almost haunting in a seven-year-old. It was only when one looked close that the embers flickering in her eyes revealed themselves.

_No more._

Ifalna seemed unable to hold herself up, but before they even crossed through that looming metal arch, she reached over to grasp a loose bar, yanking it free and swinging it into Hojo's temple with all her strength. Suddenly the grip on her arms released, and the scientist collapsed to the floor with a dull thud. She couldn't stop to think, could only focus on grabbing Aerith from the still unlocked tank and running with a renewed vigor.

Each moment blurred into the next, frantic and fuzzy, but a crystal clear goal kept her legs moving - a small face buried in the crook of her neck drove her forward. She drew stares but no resistance as she reached the lobby; they didn't know who she was, couldn't see the brand stamped deep within her: CETRA. ESCAPED SPECIMEN.

Out the door, into some sector of the city's plate - she had no idea what sector it was, and quite truthfully, didn't care. She needed a way out of this awful place, and her senses were honed to the best possible means of escape; she needed to get Aerith to safety before Hojo regained consciousness and started looking for them. There was no other option.

After winding through what seemed like endless identical buildings, stumbling up staircase after staircase, she came to a train station. As she approached, the train was pulling up, as if sensing her urgency and accommodating her personally. She and Aerith did their best to blend into the crowd as they boarded the train and descended into the slums, huddled together without making eye contact with the other passengers. Fortunately, no one around them seemed interested in catching their gaze.

As the train spiraled down the pillar, Ifalna looked into her daughter's eyes, feeling weaker by the moment. It was by sheer power of will that she continued fighting, holding on for her daughter's safety.

Lifting a heavy hand, Ifalna pulled a small glowing orb from a loose bundle of hair. The light was a gentle crystalline green, and Aerith's eyes fell to admire it, brushing soft fingertips over the surface.

"Always listen to the calls of the Planet, my darling daughter. Protect this. Keep it close and safe. It's yours now. I'll always be with you...The Planet will always be with you, so don't be afraid. Stay strong and become happy."

Aerith was now gazing at her with a strange look in her eyes, cradling the materia in her small hands. Her young mind was absorbing the words, processing them, studying her mother like it was the last chance she would have.

Or maybe Ifalna was just imagining things.

When the little girl suddenly clutched the orb to her chest, green eyes shifted from thoughtful to determined, and she buried her face into her mother's worn cloak. Ifalna circled her arms around, resting her chin on the head of loosely braided hair and closing her eyes.

A soft screech sounded outside as the train steadily slowed to a stop. Ifalna pulled back, looking down at her daughter with a soft smile. Aerith returned it ever so slightly, slipping the gently glowing materia into her own hair and taking her mother's hands to help her up. Their progress was slow, but they managed to make it off the train, across the platform, down to the foot of the stairs when Ifalna stumbled to her knees, barely catching herself with scraped palms. Shifting a bit, she laid back on the steps - she was just resting for a moment, she told herself...though she knew it was the last rest she would take. She could feel the Planet softly beckoning her, welcoming her home.

But Aerith...

She could hear her daughter's soft cries, forced her eyes open to see the unfamiliar face of a woman...Brown hair tied neatly in a bun, a very kind face...Ifalna felt like crying. _Please...Please..._ With her last breath, she said...

"Please take Aerith somewhere safe."

As she closed her eyes again, she felt the Planet's warm embrace.


End file.
